CARB set to vote on port truck plan

Backing
up tough actions taken by the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the
California Air Resources Board on Friday, Dec. 7, enacted a strict air
emissions measure that will ban much of the current fleet of diesel
trucks from all ports statewide, the Los Angeles Times
reported. CARB will require all trucks to meet 2007 emissions standards
by 2014, an effort that mirrors a plan approved by the ports.

The
regulation affects the roughly 20,000 truckers who frequent the state's
six major ports and railyards. By the end of 2009, all trucks
manufactured before 1994 -- a large portion of the current fleet --
will have to be replaced, and trucks will have to reduce diesel
emissions by a total of 85 percent.

The board's regulations act
as a backstop and complement to the L.A.-Long Beach port plans enacted
in November, which require all trucks to meet 2007 emissions standards
by 2012, two years earlier than the measures approved Friday by CARB.
"Without the state regulation, they would just use these dirty trucks
elsewhere in the state," Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long
Beach, told the Times.

Officials expect the regulation,
along with another similar measure for shipping vessels, to cost more
than $3 billion, and they have not determined how they will be funded.
Those costs have sparked opposition from trucking and shipping
interests.

The majority of port truckers are owner-operators who
make about $30,000 to $40,000 a year, according to board studies. Those
truckers say the companies that contract them should be responsible for
the cleanliness of the fleet.

"I cannot purchase a new truck, I
cannot afford a new filter for a retrofit," said Miguel Pineda, an
independent trucker who testifed before the board in Spanish. He said
most new trucks cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. "The trucker's
situation is deplorable," Pineda said.

Meanwhile, trucking
companies worry that the new regulations will spur unionization efforts
and freight backups. At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,
officials in the next two weeks will consider adding a container fee to
help pay for switching to a greener fleet.

"The cleanup effort
needs to be borne by the polluters, but it will be ultimately passed on
to the consumers, just like everything else is," S. David Freeman,
president of the harbor commission, told the Times.